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Obama & Rice in an Age of Fiscal Limits

President Obama should not nominate Ambassador Susan Rice to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. No, she didn’t lie on Face the Nation and Meet the Press. Though if lying on TV could disqualify a politician for any job, we would achieve the ultra-conservative dream and not having a government.

The ability to lie and lying itself, do not disqualify politicians and diplomats. On the contrary, lying is a qualification. Sir Harold Nicholson, arguably the founder of the discipline of international relations, said that while soldiers die for their country, “diplomats lie for their country.” This whole Republican attack on her on the basis of misleading the public is just silly.

She should not be attacked, as they are doing, on credibility, character or intelligence. However, temperament and experience are, at least, relevant issues. She is not overly popular with other diplomats at the UN. She has a reputation of being “undiplomatic,” overly straightforward and critical. Though compared with John Bolton, she is the most popular person on campus. Her “brusqueness” however might be exactly what we want at this UN and at this time. Still, it is an appropriate question about which reasonable folks (if there are any) might disagree.

The more critical question is her preparation for leading State at a time when our attention is moving towards Asia and we are still mired in Muslim conflicts. Her background and experience in Africa are exemplary—yes even with the North African nation of Libya kerfuffle. She is professionally centered on Africa, as Condi Rice was centered on the Soviet Union. Relevance of training is a real concern. It is fair to ask if there is someone more prepared for the anticipated particulars of our shifting interests.

While the attacks on her are unwarranted, I don’t believe that this is a fight worth having. Obama has a finite amount of political capital, and in this age of fiscal responsibility capital preservation is important, and he has other, and in my view, more important fights. I would urge him to save his chits, markers and muscle for the next Supreme Court nominee, the “fiscal cliff” and saving ObamaCare. Fighting for Rice might be the gallant thing to do. It might be a principled reaction to impure politics from the right or even racism and sexism, but this is neither the time nor the issue for the expenditure of so much political capital.

I was thinking the same thing. While Obama is entitled to appoint who in his opinion he thinks will represent the US the best, there are other places to park his capital. Just as he did not pick Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer protection agency that she birthed, his choice might find another worthy place to represent us (such as the UN, where she is now.) He might even want to pick a moderate Republican congressman with foreign policy experience.